AFRICAN  COLONIZATION 


AN  ADDRESS 


DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE 


American  Colonization  Society, 


Rt.  Rev.  M.  A.  DeWolfe  Howe,  D.D.,  LL.D., 

Bishop  of  Central  Pennsylvania. 


PUBLISHED  BY  REQUEST. 


WASHINGTON,  CITY  : 

Colonization  Building,  450  Pennsylvania  Avenue. 
1879. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2015 


https://archive.org/details/africancolonizat00howe_2 


ADDRESS. 


No  thoughtful  American  can  withhold  the  acknowledgment  that 
there  is  due  to  people  of  African  descent,  in  this  country,  the  best  that 
can  be  done  for  their  welfare  and  happiness.  Their  ancestors  did  not, 
like  those  of  European  stock,  come  here  as  colonists  of  their  own  ac- 
cord to  find  new  homes,  and  achieve  a higher  destiny.  They  were  the 
victims  of  a policy  then  common  to  the  civilized  world.  France,  Spain 
and  England  drew  from  the  shores  of  Africa  unwilling  servants  to  toil 
for  them  in  their  colonial  possessions.  And  so,  all  along  our  Atlantic 
border,  the  children  of  Ham,  were,  before  we  became  a nation,  “hew- 
ers of  wood  and  drawers  of  water,” — menials  in  house  and  field  to 
other  families  of  the  human  race. 

In  the  progress  of  human  events,  their  descendants,  now  numbered 
by  millions,  are  here  no  longer  in  involuntary  servitude.  All  legal  im- 
pediments to  their  advancement  are  removed.  They  are  now  free  to 
aspire  after  any  social  or  civil  position  to  which  their  intelligence,  edu- 
cation, and  moral  worth  may  entitle  them.  They  may  amass  wealth, 
wield  influence,  hold  office,  like  any  other  citizens.  And  individuals  of 
their  race  have  achieved  such  distinction  among  us.  I think  there  are 
very  few  who  are  offended  by  these  examples  of  men  who  have  strug- 
gled up  from  the  general  abasement  of  their  people,  disarmed  prejudice, 
and  fairly  secured  positions  of  prominence  and  respect.  Enthusiasts, 
who  once  espoused  their  cause  when  all  this  was  impossible,  and  who 
have  visions  of  the  future  of  the  race  which,  I apprehend,  can  never  be 
realized  on  this  continent,  say, — why  not  let  them  remain  where  they 
are,  on  their  native  soil,  and  work  out  the  problem  of  life,  under  the  ad- 
vantages which  now  are  accorded  to  them  by  the  amended  Constitution? 


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Doubtless,  the  great  mass  of  them  ■will  continue ; and  get,  and  hold 
possession  of  all  the  titular  rights  which  belong  to  American  citizens. 
The  removal  of  5,000,000  of  people  across  the  ocean  is  too  vast  an  en- 
terprise to  be  seriously  considered ; most  of  them  will  abide  where 
Providence,  favoring  or  adverse,  has  fixed  their  lot.  Yet  it  will  be  a 
new  chapter  in  human  history  if  with  all  the  inherent  difficulties  of 
their  position — difficulties  which  no  change  in  the  laws  of  the  land  can 
possibly  annul — they  can  attain  to  the  same  level  of  social,  commercial, 
and  civil  progression  to  which  a dominant  race  of  overshadowing  num- 
bers has  long  ago  risen.  And  this  perpetual  inferiority  will  not  be  in 
any  great  degree  attributable  to  the  prejudice  which  persists  in  looking 
down  upon  a people  who  have  once  been  in  bondage.  It  is  equally 
true  that  the  Indian, — civilize  him  as  much  as  you  will, — and  the  Mongo- 
lian,— in  whatever  swarms  he  may  come  to  our  shores — can  never  com- 
pete on  the  same  arena  with  the  race  that  for  a thousand  years  has  been 
in  the  van  of  human  progress,  and  has  the  advantage  of  prepossession  of 
education,  property  and  power.  And  so,  the  African,  impeded  by  his 
condition  and  history  in  this  country,  and  crowded  off  from  the  track 
of  progress  by  competitors  of  traditional  precedence  and  overwhelming 
numbers,  will,  save  in  a few  exceptional  cases,  earn  a precarious  liveli- 
hood by  the  sweat  of  his  brow,  hated  and  spurned  by  the  laborers  of 
another  race  who  dig  and  delve  at  his  side. 

The  more  intelligent  and  aspiring  of  African  stock  have  a far  more 
inviting  field  of  enterprise  open  before  them  on  their  ancestral  shores. 
A free  Colony,  which  has  now  risen  to  the  dignity  of  an  independent 
Republic,  and  which  has  been  planted  long  enough  to  demonstrate  that 
it  has  in  it  the  elements  of  permanency  and  progression,  offers  them  an 
unstinted  share  in  its  noble  mission,  and  in  its  exalted  destiny.  There 
is  an  unencumbered  field  in  which  they  may  seek  advancement  in  all 
that  man  esteems  honorable  without  encountering  invidious  rivalry  or 
universal  and  indomitable  prejudice.  Here,  at  a disadvantage,  because 
their  civilization  is  inferior  to  that  which  surrounds  and  overshadows 
them, — thither  they  can  carry  a degree  of  moral  and  mental  enlighten- 
ment which  shall  entitle  them  at  once  to  social  respect,  and  incite  them 
to  strive  for  the  prizes  of  fortune  and  the  honors  of  office. 

For,  most  of  the  colonists  who  have  already  found  a home  in  Liberia 
imigrated  under  far  less  favorable  circumstances  than  theirs  who  now, 


5 


and  hereafter,  may  embark  on  the  same  great  life  enterprise.  They 
went  in  comparative  ignorance,  just  released  from  the  tutelage  of  servi- 
tude, and  invested  with  the  terrible  responsibilities  of  liberty  in  a strange 
land.  These  have  been  for  half  a generation  in  the  hard  school  of  self- 
dependence — introduced  by  philanthropists  to  the  rudiments  of  book- 
learning, and  through  freedom  have  regained  the  consciousness,  and  are 
fired  with  the  ambitions  of  manhood.  They  can  contribute  to  the  com- 
mon stock  of  society  there  more  of  the  ingredients  which  constitute 
national  strength,  prosperty,  and  honor,  than  their  predecessors  could 
afford. 

The  pioneers  have  broken  up  the  waste  and  made  it  ready,  and  have 
beaten  back  the  savages  that  would  drive  them  from  the  strand ; — now 
is  the  time ; and  here  are  the  men  qualified  by  a special  Providence  to 
go  in  with  the  winnowed  grain  of  a higher  civilization,  to  “possess  the 
land  which  the  Lord  sware  unto  their  fathers.” 

The  time  for  colonization  has  not  passed  by: — “the  fulness”  of  it 
has  just  come.  The  tokens  of  this  fact  are  found  both  here  and  in  Af- 
rica. The  experiment  of  political  equality,  now  tried  among  us  for 
nearly  a score  of  years  has  not  shown  that  all  distinctions  of  race  are  or 
will  be  forgotten.  Centuries  cannot  efface  even  the  factitious  lines 
of  demark ation  between  the  races,  which  a century  of  untoward  re- 
lations has  produced,  and  deeply  scored.  Nature  forbids  them  to 
blend;  and  history  pronounces  that  they  cannot  stand  side  by  side  on 
the  same  plane  of  elevation. 

On  the  other  hand,  Africa  was  never  so  attractive  as  now.  The 
American  Colony,  to  which  this  Society  has  sent  out  more  than  15,000 
settlers  is  more  prosperous  than  ever.  It  is  recognized  in  the  family  of 
Nations.  Its  productions  and  exports  are  increasing  year  by  year.  Its 
intercourse  with  the  more  intelligent  tribes  of  the  interior  is  constant- 
ly widening  and  becoming  more  profitable.  Its  schools  and  other 
institutions  for  the  advancement  of  the  people;  its  laws  and  admin- 
istration of  government,  are  growing  more  efficient  and  better  adapted 
to  their  needs.  It  has  had  no  inconsiderable  share  in  the  suppression 
of  the  slave  trade,  which  is  now  denounced  by  all  civilized  nations, 
and  by  the  vigilance  of  their  navies  is  almost  banished  from  the  seas. 
Just  considered  as  a home  for  the  colored  race,  where  there  are  none 
to  jostle  them  out  of  the  way  of  progress — no  impediment  of  law  or 


6 


prejudice,  or  preoccupation  on  the  arena  of  manly  effort,  where  suc- 
ceeding generations  may  reasonably  hope  to  surpass  their  fathers  in  all 
that  ennobles  man  and  makes  his  life  a joy  to  himself  and  a blessing 
to  others,  Liberia  is,  I believe,  the  most  inviting  spot  on  the  habita- 
ble earth! 

But,  regarding  the  Colony  on  the  Coast  of  Africa,  planted,  enlarged, 
cultivated,  and  defended  by  colored  emigrants  from  the  United  States, 
as  a theatre  on  which  men  of  the  same  race  can  most  hopefully  ex- 
ercise and  develop  the  manhood  that  is  in  them,  we  do  not  half  ap- 
preciate its  advantages,  if  we  think  of  it  as  a mere  isolated  commu- 
nity, bounded  by  the  geographical  limits,  defined  in  the  treaties  with 
the  barbarous  tribes  that  compass  it  about ; it  is  the  gate  of  entrance 
to  interior  Africa.  And,  what  interior  Africa  is  we  are  only  begin- 
ning to  know.  The  researches  of  Barth  and  Livingstone,  and  our  own 
Stanley,  reveal  to  us  that  it  is  swarming  with  intelligent  people,  far  su- 
perior to  the  tribes  which  on  the  sea  coast  have  been  debased  by  in- 
cessant wars,  waged  for  the  capture  of  prisoners  to  be  sold  to  the 
slave-traders ; that  the  population  of  the  Continent  is  estimated  at  two 
hundred  millions ; that  it  is  rich  in  arable  lands  and  precious  minerals ; 
that  navigable  lakes  and  rivers  traverse  the  interior,  and  that  only 
civilization  and  enterprise(which  are  familiar  to  us,  so  that  the  products 
of  them  seem  to  us  natural  elements  like  fire  and  water),  are  required  to 
introduce  steamboats  and  railroads,  and  telegraphs.  Then  those  vast 
resources  which  have  been  “hidden  from  ages  and  generations”  shall 
be  brought  out  and  mingled  with  the  commerce  of  the  world,  and  the 
millions  that  now  “sit in  darkness”  shall  learn  to  live  like  men,  and  to 
die  in  hope  of  immortality ! 

Among  the  first  colonies  of  historic  times  were  those  planted  by  the 
Phenicians  on  the  Northern  shores  of  Africa,  where  France,  nominally 
Christian,  and  thoroughly  tolerant,  has  now  her  Colony  of  Algeria. 
England  has  unfurled  her  Red-cross  banner  at  Sierra  Leone  on  the  West, 
at  Cape  Colony  and  Natal  on  the  South,  and  Zanzibar  on  the  East ; and 
America  has  her  watch-tower  also  in  the  cordon  of  Christian  civilization 
which  almost  girts  the  Continent.  The  circumvallation  about  the 
stronghold  of  ignorance  and  degradation  is  well-nigh  complete.  Why 
do  not  these  allied  hosts  interchange  the  signal  of  onset,  and  rise  up, 
and  go  in,  and  possess  the  land  for  humanity,  and  for  God  ? Nay,  why 


have  not  the  civilization  and  enterprise  of  Europe,  and  America  long 
since  penetrated  “the  dark  Continent, ” and  brought  its  people,  and  its 
products  into  contact  with  the  commerce  of  mankind  ? I answer; — first, 
because  the  reports  of  proceedings  on  the  Coasts  have  made  the  tribes  of 
the  interior  afraid  to  deal  with  the  pale-faced  and  ruthless  invaders  from 
beyond  the  sea ; second,  because  the  climatic  influences  of  the  region 
have  been  regarded  as  fatal  to  the  white  race ; and  finally,  because  hith- 
erto there  have  been  no  representatives  of  their  own  branch  of  the  human 
family  who  in  sufficient  numbers  have  been  uplifted  by  the  civilization 
which  they  have  rather  seen  than  shared  in  other  lands,  and  made  will- 
ing to  return  to  Africa,  and  there  to  do  or  to  suffer  for  the,  regeneration 
of  their  “brethren  after  the  flesh.”  When  the  Colonies  of  America  and 
Great  Britain,  shall  have  trained  or  drawn  to  themselves  from  lands 
where  they  were  once  in  bondage,  and  always  in  subserviency,  Negro 
men  of  lofty  hopes,  and  generous  impulses,  and  practical  education,  and 
daring  enterprise — then  Central  Africa  will  be  reached  by  missionaries 
of  civilization  and  religion ; its  resources  will  be  developed,  and  circu- 
lated ; its  people  will  thrill  with  the  sense  of  a new  and  higher  life ; and 
the  story  of  its  estrangement  from  the  great  family  of  nations  will  pass 
away.  I pity  the  man  of  the  swarthy  skin,  who,  entrusted  with  the 
clues  of  liberty  and  education,  has  no  ambition  to  follow  them  when 
they  lead  out  of  darkness  and  doubt  to  such  a destiny, — to  possibilities 
of  good  for  himself  and  his  progeny,  nowhere  else  to  be  enjoyed  ! 

In  the  distribution  of  the  human  race,  the  sons  of  Ham  were  as- 
signed to  Africa;  to  its  peculiarities  of  food  and  climate  their  constitu- 
tions are  accommodated.  A century  of  life  in  other  climes  has  not  ob- 
literated this  natural  adaptation.  Experiment  has  proved  that  colored 
emigrants  from  America  survive  and  flourish  where  men  of  another  race 
lose  vigor,  sicken  and  die.  They  are  the  elected  redeemers  of  their 
Father  Land.  It  waits  their  coming: — it  sent  them  forth  with  tears;  it 
will  receive  them  again  with  joy  ! 

This  Society,  which  once  was  impugned  as  an  agent  of  domestic  agi- 
tation, and  again  traduced  as  the  enemy  of  the  blacks,  has  in  all  time 
numbered  among  its  supporters  many  of  the  distinguished  divines,  pat- 
riots and  statesmen  of  our  country.  Its  beneficent  errand  and  work  is,  to 
aid  worthy  colored  persons  of  either  sex,  and  in  any  vigorous  stage  of 
life,  who  may  desire  to  seek  a home  on  the  shores  of  that  fruitful  and 


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pleasant  Continent  from  which  their  fathers  were  torn  away ; to  help 
them  in  their  outfit,  and  to  secure  them  a freehold  on  their  arrival. 

It  is  a noble,  and  far-reaching  charity,  conferring  a blessing  not  only 
on  its  immediate  recipients,  but  on  their  children  and  children’s  children, 
“ even  to  the  years  of  many  generations;” — not  only  on  these,  but  by 
them  replenishing  that  well-spring  of  life  and  hope,  in  the  desert,  the 
overflow  of  whose  waters  will  refresh,  and  gladden  the  waste  places  that 
lie  beyond.  And  again,  the  civilization  which  through  this  medium 
shall  reach  at  length  to  the  waiting  myriads  in  Central  Africa  will  give 
back  a reflected  light  to  the  source  of  its  emanation,  and  the  entire 
world  will  be  brighter  and  happier  when  there  shall  no  longer  be  a dark 
and  dreary  spot  on  all  its  habitable  compass. 

I stood  lately  in  Westminster  Abbey,  that  Mausoleum  of  the  mighty 
dead,  at  the  spot  where  rest  the  weary  feet  of  the  great  English  Explorer, 
by  whose  adventurous  journeys  the  world  has  learned  so  much  of  the 
“secret  places”  of  the  earth;  and  on  Livingstone’s  monument  which 
overhangs  the  place  of  his  repose,  I read  the  record  of  his  prayer  of- 
fered in  loneliness  in  the  wilds  of  Central  Africa;  and  here  I repeat  it  as 
my  own  in  this  place  of  concourse,  “May  Heaven’s  richest  blessing  come 
down  on  every  one,  American,  English  or  Turk,  who  helps  to  heal  the 
open  sore  of  the  world,  Amen.” 


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